Al Franken Delves Into American History

By Julie Sobel

It's hard to come up with something new amid the election year's constant barrage of fundraising emails -- just ask the Obama campaign, whose requests for money are often mocked.

But Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., may have broken new ground in a money request with the subject line "Great Moments in Fundraising Email History." The former SNL writer gets to exercise his comedic chops, laying out the following timeline in the email:

1828: Andrew Jackson's campaign asks supporters to "give a Jackson to stand with Jackson." This failed because Andrew Jackson was not yet on the $20 bill and no one had any clue what he was talking about.

1924: Calvin Coolidge earns the nickname "Silent Cal" after his web team accidentally sends out a blank fundraising email. (It does surprisingly well.)

2012: (Insert your name here) donates $5, $10, or even $20 to help my campaign raise the $20,000 we need to keep our operation going and growing this month.

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Okay, so maybe Franken was making some of that up. Still, it takes something special to break through the email clutter.

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